Hello, this is live comment from Foro Italico. Find hereunder a small recap of day 1 of this fourth DTT Masters Series and a preview of day 2:

Singles DTT:

One match took place today and saw the win of MZverev-Fan (DTT Singles 20) over vamos israel (DTT Singles 33), extending winning streak on first round of 4. vamos israel defending proudly his chance with a 2/2 pick but failed to pick the correct SR. Maybe, next tournament will be the good one for a first win in Singles DTT.

Other players warmed up today and sent picks just in case of CB for further rounds. Only 2 players took the risk to not send picks (Drikke and Jeronimo). Is it to save energy for the real matches or does it mean they are slightly injured ? We will know that rapidly on Tuesday. All other players had a 2/2 score except trucul and marr with a 1/2 and Huff with a 0/2. One match counting for first round is however still remaining (tonight or most likely tomorrow) with Kas/Wassen vs. Cipolla/Starace.

Tomorrow will be day of second round with the following matches:

- Gigi (DTT Singles 1) vs. Huff (DTT Singles 21): after 2 weeks without any win and 1 week rest, Gigi is back to work ready to win at least one match. Gigi is clearly favourite against Huff (worst player in first round) but the romanian is maybe hiding is game.
- MuriloBrasil (DTT Singles 11) vs. MZverev-Fan (DTT Singles 20): after his win in first round, MZverev-Fan will face a tough opponent. But, though his win in Valence, MuriloBrasil is more a DTT Doubles specialist than a DTT Singles specialist. However, he will still be the favourite.
- diego36arg (DTT Singles 3) vs. trucul (DTT Singles 13): nice match between the 2 Doubles partners. diego36arg may continue on his winning streak after his win last week in Barcelona. However, maybe a little bit of fatigue could help trucul to win this match.
- Robin Hood (DTT Singles 7) vs. Allez-Alejo (DTT Singles 25): Allez-Alejo sent late picks today for the 6th tournament in a row . Seems that the American guy, more specialist of TT than DTT, has not yet recovered from jet lag. It would be a miracle if he is able to be on court on time tomorrow but Robin Hood, solid DTT player, finalist in Indian Wells, will have to watch out. But it would be a huge surprise to see Allez-Alejo win.
- Drikke (DTT Singles 6) vs. Kielian (DTT Singles 10): this is the only second round match between 2 top 10 players. Kielian is on the rising slope with a final in Barcelona last week. Drikke, after 2 SemiFinals in MS at Indian Wells and Miami and a final in Valence is slightly favourite due to fatigue of Kielian, but this may be a tough match.
- Boarder35m (DTT Singles 8) vs. lucho_coria (DTT Singles 13): will Boarder35m confirm his win at Monte-Carlo ? This is the question for the German rising start but he may be slight favourite against Argentine lucho-coria, who has never reach SF of a tournament but shows good regularity.
- georg (DTT Singles 9) vs. marr (DTT Singles 12): 2 regular players on the DTT Singles Tour but with no great performance so far. Maybe, this is the good tournament for one of them.
- Bjorki (DTT Singles 4) vs. Jeronimo (DTT Singles 19): the swedish-like Bjorki (calm and composed, very effective) against the excentric Venezuelian. Match of contrasts which reminds us of ancient time with Borg vs. McEnroe. On clay, Bjorki is clear favourite but, maybe, if Jeronimo puts a little bit of pressure on the referee, a surprise could be possible

Doubles DTT:

- warm-up day for all Doubles pairs with best score of the day so far for the favourites ,Robin Hood/MuriloBrasil (DTT Doubles 1), and for the German team Kielian/Boarder35m (DTT Doubles 14).

Tuesday is QuarterFinals day with the following matches:
- diego36arg/trucul (DTT Doubles 5) vs. Drikke/vamos israel (NR): first official match for the new Belgo-Israeli pair against the very homogeneous diego36arg/trucul pair, finalist last week in Barcelona. The franco-argentine team is clear favourite but, since they play against each other in Singles, they may be not so homogeneous in Doubles this Tuesday
- Jeronimo/lucho_coria (DTT Doubles 6) vs. Kielian/Boarder35m (DTT Doubles 14): German Team was very good in the warm-up today and I would place one or two pieces on them for a surprise in this Quarterfinal. Let us see tomorrow what the South American team will do.
- huff/Georg (DTT Doubles 4) vs. marr/MZverev-Fan (NR): Romanian team is clearly favourite against the new pair but, boosted by his Singles win today, MZverev-Fan may push his partner to play Quality DTT. Here again, a surprise is really possible.